The cities of Boston MA,
Providence RI, and Miami
FLA played
host to a group of thirteen senior police officers and policing professionals
from Ireland
and Northern Ireland
in March last. The visitors were participants on a program examining US
community policing practices and policy. The ten-day study visit was designed
and delivered by the Irish Institute at Boston College and
funded through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and
Cultural Affairs. The Irish Institute’s mission is to support the peace and
reconciliation process on the island through the provision of educational
seminars and programs for public officials, business leaders, and educators.
This is the tenth year in which the Institute’s programs have received funding
from the U.S. Government.
The 2008 Community Policing
program offered participants the opportunity to explore policing strategies
with respect to establishing an effective channel of communication between law
enforcement and the community. Seminars and site visits focused on such
topics as establishing a tradition of active and concerned citizenry, working
with existing community organizations, working with the media, working with
youth through the schools, balancing security and accountability, etc.
The group comprised ten officers from the PSNI and Garda Síochána, and three
individuals from civilian policing bodies including the Northern Ireland Police
Ombudsman, the Ombudsman’s Commission (ROI), and the Garda Inspectorate.
The first portion of the
program took place in Miami, Florida where the
group spent two full days with the men and women of the Miami Police
Department and a third day with representatives from both faith-based and
secular community organizations. Participants heard directly from the
Miami Police Department’s key personnel including Chief John Timoney and
Commander Raul Herbello. They spent a day with the Neighborhood
Enhancement Team (NET) and representatives from Narcotics, the School Resource
unit, and Community Relations. Participants were taken on a guided tour
of the city’s Allahpattah neighborhood and they visited several urban Miami community organizations including the Belefonte Tacolcy Center and Jordan
Grove
Baptist
Church.
The program then shifted to
Boston, where
participants spent a day with key members of the Boston Police Department,
the Ten Point Coalition and with leaders from several community
organizations that have successfully established themselves as trusted
intermediaries between the police and the neighborhoods they serve. Seminars
included those on policing in immigrant communities, controlling gun
proliferation, and earning the confidence of community members. While at Boston College,
participants took a seminar on “Policing Diverse Communities” with Professor
Jack McDevitt. Several members of the group went on an optional “ride
along” with the anti-gang Youth Violence Strike Force on the Friday
night.
On St. Patrick’s Day, March
17th, the Executive Director of Boston College’s Center for Irish Programs
hosted the group at a special luncheon to honor two visiting Government
Ministers from Ireland
and Northern Ireland:
Irish Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan TD and Minister of State for
Northern Ireland Paul Goggins MP. Also in attendance were the Irish
and British Consul Generals, the Commissioner of An Garda Síochána
(Fachtna Murphy), Secretary General of Ireland’s
Department of Justice, Mr. Sean Aylward and former Boston Police
Commissioner and current Chief of the Garda Síochána Inspectorate, Ms.
Kathleen O’Toole.
Program participants next
traveled to Rhode
Island where they spent a
very informative day with the Providence Police Department, an
organization known internationally for its excellence in community
policing. Colonel Dean Esserman successfully decentralized the department
out into the city’s neighborhoods and as a result, Providence
has experienced one of the largest nationwide drops in crime over the past five
years. Program participants were invited to sit in on the weekly senior
staff meeting. In addition, they met with leaders from Family Services
of Rhode Island and the Institute for Nonviolence. A highlight
of the visit saw the group hosted at City Hall by Providence Mayor David N.
Cicilline. In the afternoon the group split up and went out on patrol
with some of the department’s district officers.
